System for powering up and powering down a server

ABSTRACT

A fault tolerant computer system for powering up and powering down a server through either a local or remote client machine. The remote machine accesses the server by use of a dial-in modem connection. The power up operation brings the server to an operational state such that diagnostics or recovery can be performed even though the operating system software on the server is not operational. Power down is used when diagnosis and maintenance, such as changing a part, needs to be done. Other reasons for power down are for security or power conservation.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 08/943,077,entitled "METHOD OF POWERING UP AND POWERING DOWN A SERVER", AttorneyDocket No. MNFRAME. 019A; U.S. application Ser. No. 08/942,333, entitled"SYSTEM FOR RESETTING A SERVER", Attorney Docket No. MNFRAME.020A; U.S.application Ser. No.08/942,405, entitled "METHOD OF RESETTING A SERVER",Attorney Docket No. MNFRAME. 021A; U.S. application Ser. No. 08/942,070,entitled "SYSTEM FOR DISPLAYING FLIGHT RECORDER", Attorney Docket No.MNFRAME.022A; U.S. application Ser. No. 08/942,068, entitled "METHOD OFDISPLAYING FLIGHT RECORDER", Attorney Docket No. MNFRAME.023A; U.S.application Ser. No. 08/942,347, entitled "SYSTEM FOR DISPLAYING SYSTEMSTATUS", Attorney Docket No. MNFRAME.044A; U.S. application Ser. No.08/942,071, entitled "METHOD OF DISPLAYING SYSTEM STATUS", AttorneyDocket No. MNFRAME.045A, which are being filed concurrently herewith onOct. 1, 1997.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE OF COMMONLY OWNED APPLICATION

The following patent application, commonly owned and filed on same dayas the present application are hereby incorporated herein in theirentirety by reference thereto:

    __________________________________________________________________________                                  Attorney Docket                                 Title                 Application No.                                                                       No.                                             __________________________________________________________________________    "System Architecture for Remote Access and                                                          08/942,160                                                                            MNFRAME.002A1                                   Control of Environmental Management"                                          "Method of Remote Access and Control of                                                             08/942,215                                                                            MNFRAME.002A2                                   Environmental Management"                                                     "System for Independent Powering of Diagnostic                                                      08/942,410                                                                            MNFRAME.002A3                                   Processes on a Computer System"                                               "Method of Independent Powering of Diagnostic                                                       08/942,320                                                                            MNFRAME.002A4                                   Processes on a Computer System"                                               "Diagnostic and Managing Distributed Processor                                                      08/942,402                                                                            MNFRAME.005A1                                   System"                                                                       "Method for Managing a Distributed Processor                                                        08/942,448                                                                            MNFRAME.005A2                                   System"                                                                       "System for Mapping Environmental Resources to                                                      08/942,222                                                                            MNFRAME.005A3                                   Memory for Program Access"                                                    "Method for Mapping Environmental Resources to                                                      08/942,214                                                                            MNFRAME.005A4                                   Memory for Program Access"                                                    "Hot Add of Devices Software Architecture"                                                          08/942,309                                                                            MNFRAME.006A1                                   "Method for The Hot Add of Devices"                                                                 08/942,306                                                                            MNFRAME.006A2                                   "Hot Swap of Devices Software Architecture"                                                         08/942,311                                                                            MNFRAME.006A3                                   "Method for The Hot Swap of Devices"                                                                08/942,457                                                                            MNFRAME.006A4                                   "Method for the Hot Add of a Network Adapter on a                                                   08/943,072                                                                            MNFRAME.006A5                                   System Including a Dynamically Loaded Adapter                                 Driver"                                                                       "Method for the Hot Add of a Mass Storage Adapter                                                   08/942,069                                                                            MNFRAME.006A6                                   on a System Including a Statically Loaded Adapter                             Driver"                                                                       "Method for the Hot Add of a Network Adapter on a                                                   08/942,465                                                                            MNFRAME.006A7                                   System Including a Statically Loaded Adapter                                  Driver"                                                                       "Method for the Hot Add of a Mass Storage Adapter                                                   08/962,963                                                                            MNFRAME.006A8                                   on a System Including a Dynamically Loaded                                    Adapter Driver"                                                               "Method for the Hot Swap of a Network Adapter on                                                    08/943,078                                                                            MNFRAME.006A9                                   a System Including a Dynamically Loaded Adapter                               Driver"                                                                       "Method for the Hot Swap of a Mass Storage                                                          08/942,336                                                                            MNFRAME.006A10                                  Adapter on a System Including a Statically Loaded                             Adapter Driver"                                                               "Method for the Hot Swap of a Network Adapter on                                                    08/942,459                                                                            MNFRAME.006A11                                  a System Including a Statically Loaded Adapter                                Driver"                                                                       "Method for the Hot Swap of a Mass Storage                                                          08/942,458                                                                            MNFRAME.006A12                                  Adapter on a System Including a Dynamically                                   Loaded Adapter Driver"                                                        "Method of Performing an Extensive Diagnostic                                                       08/942,463                                                                            MNFRAME.008A                                    Test in Conjunction with a BIOS Test Routine"                                 "Apparatus for Performing an Extensive Diagnostic                                                   08/942,163                                                                            MNFRAME.009A                                    Test in Conjunction with a BIOS Test Routine"                                 "Configuration Management Method for Hot                                                            08/941,268                                                                            MNFRAME.010A                                    Adding and Hot Replacing Devices"                                             "Configuration Management System for Hot Adding                                                     08/942,408                                                                            MNFRAME.011A                                    and Hot Replacing Devices"                                                    "Apparatus for Interfacing Buses"                                                                   08/942,382                                                                            MNFRAME.012A                                    "Method for Interfacing Buses"                                                                      08/942,413                                                                            MNFRAME.013A                                    "Computer Fan Speed Control Device"                                                                 08/942,447                                                                            MNFRAME.016A                                    "Computer Fan Speed Control Method"                                                                 08/942,216                                                                            MNFRAME.017A                                    "System for Powering Up and Powering Down a                                                         08/943,076                                                                            MNFRAME.018A                                    Server"                                                                       "Method of Powering Up and Powering Down a                                                          08/943,077                                                                            MNFRAME.019A                                    Server"                                                                       "System for Resetting a Server"                                                                     08/942,333                                                                            MNFRAME.020A                                    "Method of Resetting a Server"                                                                      08/942,405                                                                            MNFRAME.021A                                    "System for Displaying Flight Recorder"                                                             08/942,070                                                                            MNFRAME.022A                                    "Method of Displaying Flight Recorder"                                                              08/942,068                                                                            MNFRAME.023A                                    "Synchronous Communication Interface"                                                               08/943,355                                                                            MNFRAME.024A                                    "Synchronous Communication Emulation"                                                               081942,004                                                                            MNFRAME.025A                                    "Software System Facilitating the Replacement or                                                    08/942,317                                                                            MNFRAME.026A                                    Insertion of Devices in a Computer System"                                    "Method for Facilitating the Replacement or                                                         08/942,316                                                                            MNFRAME.027A                                    Insertion of Devices in a Computer System"                                    "System Management Graphic User Interface"                                                          08/943,357                                                                            MNFRAME.028A                                    "Display of System Information"                                                                     08/942,195                                                                            MNFRAME.029A                                    "Data Management System Supporting Hot Plug                                                         08/942,129                                                                            MNFRAME.030A                                    Operations on a Computer"                                                     "Data Management Method Supporting Hot Plug                                                         08/942,124                                                                            MNFRAME.031A                                    Operations on a Computer"                                                     "Alert Configurator and Manager"                                                                    08/942,005                                                                            MNFRAME.032A                                    "Managing Computer System Alerts"                                                                   08/943,356                                                                            MNFRAME.033A                                    "Computer Fan Speed Control System"                                                                 08/940,301                                                                            MNFRAME.034A                                    "Computer Fan Speed Control System Method"                                                          08/941,267                                                                            MNFRAME.035A                                    "Black Box Recorder for Information System                                                          08/942,381                                                                            MNFRAME.036A                                    Events"                                                                       "Method of Recording Information System Events"                                                     08/942,164                                                                            MNFRAME.037A                                    "Method for Automatically Reporting a System                                                        08/942,168                                                                            MNFRAME.040A                                    Failure in a Server"                                                          "System for Automatically Reporting a System                                                        08/942,384                                                                            MNFRAME.041A                                    Failure in a Server"                                                          "Expansion of PCI Bus Loading Capacity"                                                             08/942,404                                                                            MNFRAME.042A                                    "Method for Expanding PCI Bus Loading Capacity"                                                     08/942,223                                                                            MNFRAME.043A                                    "System for Displaying System Status"                                                               08/942,347                                                                            MNFRAME.044A                                    "Method of Displaying System Status"                                                                08/942,071                                                                            MNFRAME.045A                                    "Fault Tolerant Computer System"                                                                    08/942,194                                                                            MNFRAME.046A                                    "Method for Hot Swapping of Network                                                                 08/943,044                                                                            MNFRAME.047A                                    Components"                                                                   "A Method for Communicating a Software                                                              08/942,221                                                                            MNFRAME.048A                                    Generated Pulse Waveform Between Two Servers in                               a Network"                                                                    "A System for Communicating a Software                                                              08/942,409                                                                            MNFRAME.049A                                    Generated Pulse Waveform Between Two Servers in                               a Network"                                                                    "Method for Clustering Software Applications"                                                       08/942,318                                                                            MNFRAME.050A                                    "System for Clustering Software Applications"                                                       08/942,411                                                                            MNFRAME.051A                                    "Method for Automatically Configuring a Server                                                      08/942,319                                                                            MNFRAME.052A                                    after Hot Add of a Device"                                                    "System for Automatically Configuring a Server                                                      08/942,331                                                                            MNFRAME.053A                                    after Hot Add of a Device"                                                    "Method of Automatically Configuring and                                                            08/942,412                                                                            MNFRAME.054A                                    Formatting a Computer System and Installing                                   Software"                                                                     "System for Automatically Configuring and                                                           08/941,955                                                                            MNFRAME.055A                                    Formatting a Computer System and Installing                                   Software"                                                                     "Determining Slot Numbers in a Computer"                                                            08/942,462                                                                            MNFRAME.056A                                    "System for Detecting Errors in a Network"                                                          08/942,169                                                                            MNFRAME.058A                                    "Method of Detecting Errors in a Network"                                                           08/940,302                                                                            MNFRAME.059A                                    "System for Detecting Network Errors"                                                               08/942,407                                                                            MNFRAME.060A                                    "Method of Detecting Network Errors"                                                                08/942,573                                                                            MNFRAME.061A--.                                 __________________________________________________________________________

PRIORITY CLAIM

The benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of the following U.S. provisionalapplication(s) is hereby claimed:

    __________________________________________________________________________                           Application                                            Title                  No.     Filing Date                                    __________________________________________________________________________    "Remote Software for Monitoring and                                                                  60/046,326                                                                            May 13, 1997                                   Managing Environmental Management System"                                     "Remote Access and Control of Environmental                                                          60/046,397                                                                            May 13, 1997                                   Management System"                                                            "Hardware and Software Architecture for                                                              60/047,016                                                                            May 13, 1997                                   Inter-Connecting an Environmental                                             Management System with a Remote Interface"                                    "Self Management Protocol for a Fly-By-Wire                                                          60/046,416                                                                            May 13, 1997                                   Service Processor"                                                            __________________________________________________________________________

COPYRIGHT RIGHTS

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to fault tolerant computer systems. Morespecifically, the invention is directed to a system for providing remoteaccess and control of server environmental management.

2. Description of the Related Technology

As enterprise-class servers become more powerful and more capable, theyare also becoming increasingly sophisticated and complex. For manycompanies, these changes lead to concerns over server reliability andmanageability, particularly in light of the increasingly critical roleof server-based applications. While in the past many systemsadministrators were comfortable with all of the various components thatmade up a standards-based network server, today's generation of serverscan appear as an incomprehensible, unmanageable black box. Withoutvisibility into the underlying behavior of the system, the administratormust "fly blind." Too often the only indicators the network manager hason the relative health of a particular server is whether or not it isrunning.

It is well-acknowledged that there is a lack of reliability andavailability of most standards-based servers. Server downtime, resultingeither from hardware or software faults or from regular maintenance,continues to be a significant problem. By one estimate, the cost ofdowntime in mission critical environments has risen to an annual totalof $4.0 billion for U.S. businesses, with the average downtime eventresulting in a $140 thousand loss in the retail industry and a $450thousand loss in the securities industry. It has been reported thatcompanies lose as much as $250 thousand in employee productivity forevery 1% of computer downtime. With emerging Internet, intranet andcollaborative applications taking on more essential business roles everyday, the cost of network server downtime will continue to spiral upward.

While hardware fault tolerance is an important element of an overallhigh availability architecture, it is only one piece of the puzzle.Studies show that a significant percentage of network server downtime iscaused by transient faults in the I/O subsystem. These faults may bedue, for example, to the device driver, the adapter card firmware, orhardware which does not properly handle concurrent errors, and oftencauses servers to crash or hang. The result is hours of downtime perfailure, while a system administrator discovers the failure takes someaction, and manually reboots the server. In many cases, data volumes onhard disk drives become corrupt and must be repaired when the volume ismounted. A dismount-and-mount cycle may result from the lack of "hotpluggability" in current standards-based servers. Diagnosingintermittent errors can be a frustrating and time-consuming process. Fora system to deliver consistently high availability, it must be resilientto these types of faults. Accurate and available information about suchfaults is central to diagnosing the underlying problems and takingcorrective action.

Modem fault tolerant systems have the functionality to provide theambient temperature of a storage device enclosure and the operationalstatus of other components such as the cooling fans and power supply.However, a limitation of these server systems is that they do notcontain self-managing processes to correct malfunctions. Also, if amalfunction occurs in a typical server, it relies on the operatingsystem software to report, record and manage recovery of the fault.However, many types of faults will prevent such software from carryingout these tasks. For example, a disk drive failure can prevent recordingof the fault in a log file on that disk drive. If the system errorcaused the system to power down, then the system administrator wouldnever know the source of the error.

Traditional systems are lacking in detail and sophistication whennotifying system administrators of system malfunctions. Systemadministrators are in need of a graphical user interface for monitoringthe health of a network of servers. Administrators need a simplepoint-and-click interface to evaluate the health of each server in thenetwork. In addition, existing fault tolerant servers rely uponoperating system maintained logs for error recording. These systems arenot capable of maintaining information when the operating system isinoperable due to a system malfunction. Existing systems do not have asystem log for maintaining information when the main computationalprocessors are inoperable or the operating system has crashed.

Another limitation of the typical fault tolerant system is that thecontrol logic for the diagnostic system is associated with a particularprocessor. Thus, if the environmental control processor malfunctioned,then all diagnostic activity on the computer would cease. In traditionalsystems, if a controller dedicated to the fan system failed, then allfan activity could cease resulting in overheating and ultimate failureof the server. What is desired is a way to obtain diagnostic informationwhen the server OS is not operational or even when main power to theserver is down.

Existing fault tolerant systems also lack the power to remotely controla particular server, such as powering up and down, resetting, retrievingor updating system status, displaying flight recorder information and soforth. Such control of the server is desired even when the server poweris down. For example, if the operating system on the remote machinefailed, then a system administrator would have to physically go to theremote machine to re-boot the malfunctioning machine before any systeminformation could be obtained or diagnostics could be started.

Therefore, a need exists for improvements in server management whichwill result in greater reliability and dependability of operation.Server users are in need of a management system by which the users canaccurately gauge the health of their system. Users need a highavailability system that must not only be resilient to faults, but mustallow for maintenance, modification, and growth--without downtime.System users must be able to replace failed components, and add newfunctionality, such as new network interfaces, disk interface cards andstorage, without impacting existing users. As system demands grow,organizations must frequently expand, or scale, their computinginfrastructure, adding new processing power, memory, storage and I/Ocapacity. With demand for 24-hour access to critical, server-basedinformation resources, planned system downtime for system service orexpansion has become unacceptable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The inventive remote access system provides system administrators withnew levels of client/server system availability and management. It givessystem administrators and network managers a comprehensive view into theunderlying health of the server--in real time, whether on-site oroff-site. In the event of a failure, the invention enables theadministrator to learn why the system failed, why the system was unableto boot, and to control certain functions of the server from a remotestation.

One embodiment of the present invention is a system for powering on acomputer, the system comprising a first computer; a microcontrollercapable of providing a power on signal to at least one power supply forthe first computer; a remote interface circuit, having an independentpower supply, connected to the microcontroller; and a second computerconnected to the first computer via the remote interface circuit andcommunicating a power on command to the microcontroller.

Another embodiment of the present invention is a system for powering offa computer, the system comprising a first computer; a microcontrollercapable of providing a power off signal to at least one power supply forthe first computer; a remote interface circuit, having an independentpower supply, connected to the microcontroller; and a second computerconnected to the first computer via the remote interface circuit andcommunicating a power off command to the microcontroller.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention is a program storagedevice storing instructions that, when executed by a computer system,perform the method comprising: providing a command for remotely poweringon or powering off a first computer; sending the command from a secondcomputer through a remote interface circuit to the first computer;executing the command on a microcontroller in the first computer; andsending a power on or power off signal from the microcontroller to thefirst computer thereby powering on or powering off the first computer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top level block diagram of a server system having amicrocontroller network in communication with a local client computer ora remote client computer utilized by one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the microcontroller network shownin FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of serial protocol message formats utilized incommunications between the client computer and remote interface shown inFIGS. 1 and 2.

FIGS. 4a and 4b are one embodiment of a flow diagram of a power-onprocess performed by the microcontroller network and client computer ofFIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 5 is one embodiment of a flow diagram of the power-on functionshown in FIG. 4b.

FIGS. 6a and 6b are one embodiment of a flow diagram of a power-offprocess performed by the microcontroller network and client computer ofFIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 7 is one embodiment of a flow diagram of the power-off functionshown in FIG. 6b.

FIGS. 8a and 8b are one embodiment of a flow diagram of a reset processperformed by the microcontroller network and client computer of FIGS. 1and 2.

FIG. 9 is one embodiment of a flow diagram of the reset function shownin FIG. 8b.

FIGS. 10a and 10b are one embodiment of a flow diagram of a displayflight recorder process performed by the microcontroller network andclient computer of FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 11 is one embodiment of a flow diagram of the read non-volatile RAM(NVRAM) contents function shown in FIG. 10 b.

FIGS. 12a, 12b and 12c are a detailed block diagram of themicrocontroller network components showing a portion of the inputs andoutputs of the microcontrollers shown in FIG. 2.

FIGS. 13a and 13b are one embodiment of a flow diagram of a systemstatus process performed by the microcontroller network and clientcomputer of FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 14 is one embodiment of a flow diagram of the system statusfunction shown in FIG. 13b.

FIG. 15 is an exemplary screen display of a server power-on window seenat the client computer to control the microcontroller network of FIGS. 1and 2.

FIG. 16 is an exemplary screen display of a flight recorder window seenat the client computer to control the microcontroller network of FIGS. 1and 2.

FIG. 17 is an exemplary screen display of a system status window seen atthe client computer to control the microcontroller network of FIGS. 1and 2.

FIG. 18 is an exemplary screen display of a system status:fans windowseen at the client computer to control the microcontroller network ofFIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 19 is an exemplary screen display of a system status:fans:canisterA window seen at the client computer to control the microcontrollernetwork of FIGS. 1 and 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following detailed description presents a description of certainspecific embodiments of the present invention. However, the presentinvention can be embodied in a multitude of different ways as definedand covered by the claims. In this description, reference is made to thedrawings wherein like parts are designated with like numeralsthroughout.

For convenience, the description will be organized into the followingprincipal sections: Introduction, Server System, MicrocontrollerNetwork, Remote Interface Serial Protocol, Power-On Flow, Power-OffFlow, Reset Flow, Flight Recorder Flow, and System Status Flow.

I. INTRODUCTION

The inventive computer server system and client computer includes adistributed hardware environment management system that is built as asmall self-contained network of microcontrollers. Operatingindependently of the system processor and operating software, thepresent invention uses one or more separate processors for providinginformation and managing the hardware environment that may include fans,power supplies and/or temperature.

One embodiment of the present invention facilitates remotely powering-onand powering-off of the server system by use of a client computer. Theclient computer may be local to the server system, or may be at alocation remote from the server system, in which case a pair of modemsare utilized to provide communication between the client computer andthe server system. A remote interface board connects to the server andinterfaces to the server modem. Recovery manager software is loaded onthe client computer to control the power-on and power-off processes andto provide feedback to a user though a graphical user interface.

Another embodiment of the present invention facilitates remotelyresetting the server system by use of the client computer. Resetting theserver system brings the server and operating system to a normaloperating state. Recovery manager software is loaded on the clientcomputer to control the resetting process and to provide feedback to auser though a graphical user interface.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides for a system log,known as a "flight recorder," which records hardware component failureand software crashes in a Non-Volatile RAM. With real time and datereferencing, the system recorder enables system administrators tore-construct system activity by accessing the log. This information isvery helpful in diagnosing the server system.

Initialization, modification and retrieval of system conditions isperformed through utilization of a remote interface by issuing commandsto the environmental processors. The system conditions may includesystem log size, presence of faults in the system log, serial number foreach of the environmental processors, serial numbers for each powersupply of the system, system identification, system log count, powersettings and presence, canister presence, temperature, BUS/CORE speedratio, fan speeds, settings for fan faults, LCD display, Non-MaskableInterrupt (NMI) request bits, CPU fault summary, FRU status, JTAG enablebit, system log information, remote access password, over-temperaturefault, CPU error bits, CPU presence, CPU thermal fault bits, and remoteport modem. The aforementioned list of capabilities provided by thepresent environmental system is not all-inclusive.

The server system and client computer provides mechanisms for theevaluation of the data that the system collects and methods for thediagnosis and repair of server problems in a manner that system errorscan be effectively and efficiently managed. The time to evaluate andrepair problems is minimized. The server system ensures that the systemwill not go down, so long as sufficient system resources are availableto continue operation, but rather degrade gracefully until the faultycomponents can be replaced.

II. SERVER SYSTEM

Referring to FIG. 1, a server system 100 with a client computer will bedescribed. In one embodiment, the server system hardware environment 100may be built around a self-contained network of microcontrollers, suchas, for example, a remote interface microcontroller on the remoteinterface board or circuit 104, a system interface microcontroller 106and a system recorder microcontroller 110. This distributed serviceprocessor network 102 may operate as a fully self-contained subsystemwithin the server system 100, continuously monitoring and managing thephysical environment of the machine (e.g., temperature, voltages, fanstatus). The microcontroller network 102 continues to operate andprovides a system administrator with critical system information,regardless of the operational status of the server 100.

Information collected and analyzed by the microcontroller network 102can be presented to a system administrator using either SNMP-basedsystem management software (not shown), or using microcontroller networkRecovery Manager software 130 through a local connection 121 or adial-in connection 123. The system management software, which interfaceswith the operating software (OS) 108 such as Microsoft Windows NTVersion 4.0 or Novell Netware Version 4.11, for example, provides theability to manage the specific characteristics of the server system,including Hot Plug Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), power andcooling status, as well as the ability to handle alerts associated withthese features when the server is operational.

The microcontroller network Recovery Manager software 130 allows thesystem administrator to query the status of the server system 100through the microcontroller network 102, even when the server is down.In addition, the server Operating Software 108 does not need to berunning to utilize the Recovery Manager 130. Users of the RecoveryManager 130 are able to manage, diagnose and restore service to theserver system quickly in the event of a failure through a friendlygraphical user interface (GUI).

Using the microcontroller network remote management capability, a systemadministrator can use the Recovery Manager 130 to re-start a failedsystem through a modem connection 123. First, the administrator canremotely view the microcontroller network Flight Recorder, a featurethat may, in one embodiment, store all system messages, status and errorreports in a circular System Recorder memory. In one embodiment, theSystem Recorder memory may be a Non-Volatile Random Access Memory buffer(NVRAM) 112. Then, after determining the cause of the system problem,the administrator can use microcontroller network "fly by wire"capability to reset the system, as well as to power the system off oron. "Fly by wire" denotes that no switch, indicator or other control isdirectly connected to the function it monitors or controls, but instead,all the control and monitoring connections are made by themicrocontroller network 102.

The remote interface or remote interface board (RIB) 104 interfaces theserver system 100 to an external client computer. The RIB 104 connectsto either a local client computer 122 at the same location as the server100 or to a remote client computer 124 either directly or through anoptional switch 120. The client computer 122/124 may in one embodimentrun either Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows NT Workstation version 4.0operating software (OS) 132. The processor and RAM requirements of theclient computer 122/124 are such as may be specified by the vendor ofthe OS 132. The serial port of the client computer 122/124 may utilize atype 16550A Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART). Theswitch facilitates either the local connection 121 or the modemconnection 123 at any one time, but allows both types of connections tobe connected to the switch. In an another embodiment, either the localconnection 121 or the modem connection 123 is connected directly to theRIB 104. The local connection 121 utilizes a readily availablenull-modem serial cable to connect to the local client computer. Themodem connection may utilize a Hayes-compatible server modem 126 and aHayes-compatible client modem 128. In one embodiment, a model fax modemV.34X 33.6K available from Zoom is utilized as the client modem and theserver modem. In another embodiment, a Sportster 33.6K fax modemavailable from US Robotics is utilized as the client modem.

The steps of connecting the remote client computer 124 to the server 100will now be briefly described. The remote interface 104 has a serialport connector (not shown) that directly connects with a counterpartserial port connector of the external server modem 126 without the useof a cable. If desired, a serial cable could be used to interconnect theremote interface 104 and the server modem 126. The cable end of an AC toDC power adapter (not shown, for example 120 Volt AC/7.5 Volt DC) isthen connected to a DC power connector (not shown) of the remoteinterface, while the double-prong end is plugged into a 120 Volt AC walloutlet. One end of an RJ-45 parallel-wire data cable 103 is then pluggedinto an RJ-45 jack (not shown) on the remote interface 104, while theother end is plugged into a RJ-45 Recovery Manager jack on the server100. The RJ-45 jack on the server then connects to the microcontrollernetwork 102. The server modem 126 is then connected to a communicationsnetwork 127 using an appropriate connector. The communications network127 may be a public switched telephone network, although other modemtypes and communication networks are envisioned. For example, if cablemodems are used for the server modem 126 and client modem 128, thecommunications network can be a cable television network. As anotherexample, satellite modulator/demodulators can be used in conjunctionwith a satellite network.

In another embodiment, the server modem to client modem connection maybe implemented by an Internet connection utilizing the well known TCP/IPprotocol. Any of several Internet access devices, such as modems ornetwork interface cards, may be utilized. Thus, the communicationsnetwork 127 may utilize either circuit or packet switching.

At the remote client computer 124, a serial cable (for example, a 25-pinD-shell) 129 is used to interconnect the client modem 128 and the clientcomputer 124. The client modem 128 is then connected to thecommunications network 127 using an appropriate connector. Each modem isthen plugged into an appropriate power source for the modem, such as anAC outlet. At this time, the Recovery Manager software 130 is loadedinto the client computer 124, if not already present, and activated.

The steps of connecting the local client computer 122 to the server 100are similar, but modems are not necessary. The main difference is thatthe serial port connector of the remote interface 104 connects to aserial port of the local client computer 122 by the null-modem serialcable 121.

III. MICROCONTROLLER NETWORK

In one embodiment, the current invention may include a network ofmicrocontrollers 102 (FIG. 1). The microcontrollers may providefunctionality for system control, diagnostic routines, self-maintenancecontrol, and event logging processors. A further description of themicrocontrollers and microcontroller network is provided in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 08/924,402, entitled "Diagnostic and ManagingDistributed Processor System".

Referring to FIG. 2, in one embodiment of the invention, the network ofmicrocontrollers 102 includes ten processors. One of the purposes of themicrocontroller network 102 is to transfer messages to the othercomponents of the server system 100. The may processors include: aSystem Interface controller 106, a CPU A controller 166, a CPU Bcontroller 168, a System Recorder 10, a Chassis controller 170, aCanister A controller 172, a Canister B controller 174, a Canister Ccontroller 176, a Canister D controller 178 and a Remote Interfacecontroller 200. The Remote Interface controller 200 is located on theRIB 104 (FIG. 1) which is part of the server system 100, but may beexternal to a server enclosure. The System Interface controller 106, theCPU A controller 166 and the CPU B controller 168 are located on asystem board 150 (also sometimes called a motherboard) in the server100. Also located on the system board are one or more central processingunits (CPUs) or microprocessors 164 and an Industry StandardArchitecture (ISA) bus 162 that connects to the System InterfaceController 106. Of course, other buses such as PCI, EISA andMicrochannel may be used. The CPU 164 may be any conventional generalpurpose single-chip or multi-chip microprocessor such as a Pentium®,Pentium® Pro or Pentium® II processor available from Intel Corporation,a SPARC processor available from Sun Microsystems, a MIPS® processoravailable from Silicon Graphics, Inc., a Power PC® processor availablefrom Motorola, or an ALPHA® processor available from Digital EquipmentCorporation. In addition, the CPU 164 may be any conventional specialpurpose microprocessor such as a digital signal processor or a graphicsprocessor.

The System Recorder 110 and Chassis controller 170, along with theSystem Recorder memory 112 that connects to the System Recorder 110, maybe located on a backplane 152 of the server 100. The System Recorder 110and Chassis controller 170 are the first microcontrollers to power upwhen server power is applied. The System Recorder 110, the Chassiscontroller 170 and the Remote Interface microcontroller 200 (on the RIB)are the three microcontrollers that have a bias 5 Volt power supplied tothem. If main server power is off, an independent power supply sourcefor the bias 5 Volt power is provided by the RIB 104 (FIG. 1). TheCanister controllers 172-178 are not considered to be part of thebackplane 152 because they are located on separate cards which areremovable from the backplane 152.

Each of the microcontrollers has a unique system identifier or address.The addresses are as follows in Table 1:

                  TABLE 1                                                         ______________________________________                                        Microcontroller     Address                                                   ______________________________________                                        System Interface controller 106                                                                   10                                                        CPU A controller 166                                                                              03                                                        CPU B controller 168                                                                              04                                                        System Recorder 110 01                                                        Chassis controller 170                                                                            02                                                        Canister A controller 172                                                                         20                                                        Canister B controller 174                                                                         21                                                        Canister C controller 176                                                                         22                                                        Canister D controller 178                                                                         23                                                        Remote Interface controller 200                                                                   11                                                        ______________________________________                                    

The microcontrollers may be Microchip Technologies, Inc. PIC processorsin one embodiment, although other microcontrollers, such as an 8051available from Intel, an 8751, available from Atmel, or a P80CL580microprocessor available from Philips Semiconductor, could be utilized.The PIC16C74 (Chassis controller 170) and PIC16C65 (the othercontrollers) are members of the PIC16CXX family of high-performanceCMOS, fully-static, EPROM-based 8-bit microcontrollers. The PICcontrollers have 192 bytes of RAM, in addition to program memory, threetimer/counters, two capture/compare/Pulse Width Modulation modules andtwo serial ports. The synchronous serial port is configured as atwo-wire Inter-Integrated Circuit (I² C) bus in one embodiment of theinvention. The PIC controllers use a Harvard architecture in whichprogram and data are accessed from separate memories. This improvesbandwidth over traditional von Neumann architecture controllers whereprogram and data are fetched from the same memory. Separating programand data memory further allows instructions to be sized differently thanthe 8-bit wide data word. Instruction opcodes are 14-bit wide making itpossible to have all single word instructions. A 14-bit wide programmemory access bus fetches a 14-bit instruction in a single cycle.

In one embodiment of the invention, the microcontrollers communicatethrough an I² C serial bus, also referred to as a microcontroller bus160. The document "The I² C Bus and How to Use It" (PhilipsSemiconductor, 1992) is hereby incorporated by reference. The I² C busis a bidirectional two-wire bus and operates at a 400 kbps rate in thepresent embodiment. However, other bus structures and protocols could beemployed in connection with this invention. For example, the AppleComputer ADB, Universal Serial Bus, IEEE-1394 (Firewire), IEEE-488(GPIB), RS-485, or Controller Area Network (CAN) could be utilized asthe microcontroller bus. Control on the microcontroller bus isdistributed. Each microcontroller can be a sender (a master) or areceiver (a slave) and each is interconnected by this bus. Amicrocontroller directly controls its own resources, and indirectlycontrols resources of other microcontrollers on the bus.

Here are some of the features of the I² C-bus:

Two bus lines are utilized: a serial data line (SDA) and a serial clockline (SCL).

Each device connected to the bus is software addressable by a uniqueaddress and simple master/slave relationships exist at all times;masters can operate as master-transmitters or as master-receivers.

The bus is a true multi-master bus including collision detection andarbitration to prevent data corruption if two or more masterssimultaneously initiate data transfer.

Serial, 8-bit oriented, bidirectional data transfers can be made at upto 400 kbit/second in the fast mode.

Two wires, serial data (SDA) and serial clock (SCL), carry informationbetween the devices connected to the I² C bus. Each device is recognizedby a unique address and can operate as either a transmitter or receiver,depending on the function of the device. For example, a memory deviceconnected to the I² C bus could both receive and transmit data. Inaddition to transmitters and receivers, devices can also be consideredas masters or slaves when performing data transfers (see Table 2). Amaster is the device which initiates a data transfer on the bus andgenerates the clock signals to permit that transfer. At that time, anydevice addressed is considered a slave.

                  TABLE 2                                                         ______________________________________                                        Definition of I.sup.2 C-bus terminology                                       Term      Description                                                         ______________________________________                                        Transmitter                                                                             The device which sends the data to the bus                          Receiver  The device which receives the data from the bus                     Master    The device which initiates a transfer, generates clock                        signals and terminates a transfer                                   Slave     The device addressed by a master                                    Multi-master                                                                            More than one master can attempt to control the bus at                        the same time without corrupting the message                        Arbitration                                                                             Procedure to ensure that, if more than one master                             simultaneously tries to control the bus, only one is                          allowed to do so and the message is not corrupted                   Synchronization                                                                         Procedure to synchronize the clock signal of two or                           more devices                                                        ______________________________________                                    

The I² C-bus is a multi-master bus. This means that more than one devicecapable of controlling the bus can be connected to it. As masters areusually microcontrollers, consider the case of a data transfer betweentwo microcontrollers connected to the I² C-bus. This highlights themaster-slave and receiver-transmitter relationships to be found on the1² C-bus. It should be noted that these relationships are not permanent,but depend on the direction of data transfer at that time. The transferof data would proceed as follows:

1) Suppose microcontroller A wants to send information tomicrocontroller B:

microcontroller A (master), addresses microcontroller B (slave);

microcontroller A (master-transmitter), sends data to microcontroller B(slave-receiver);

microcontroller A terminates the transfer.

2) If microcontroller A wants to receive information frommicrocontroller B:

microcontroller A (master addresses microcontroller B (slave);

microcontroller A (master-receiver) receives data from microcontroller B(slave-transmitter);

microcontroller A terminates the transfer.

Even in this situation, the master (microcontroller A) generates thetiming and terminates the transfer.

The possibility of connecting more than one microcontroller to the I²C-bus means that more than one master could try to initiate a datatransfer at the same time. To avoid the chaos that might ensue from suchan event, an arbitration procedure has been developed. This procedurerelies on the wired-AND connection of all I² C interfaces to the 1²C-bus.

If two or more masters try to put information onto the bus, the first toproduce a `one` when the other produces a `zero` will lose thearbitration. The clock signals during arbitration are a synchronizedcombination of the clocks generated by the masters using the wired-ANDconnection to the SCL line.

Generation of clock signal on the I² C-bus is the responsibility ofmaster devices. Each master microcontroller generates its own clocksignals when transferring data on the bus.

The command, diagnostic, monitoring and history functions of themicrocontroller network 102 are accessed using a global network memorymodel in one embodiment. That is, any function may be queried simply bygenerating a network "read" request targeted at the function's knownglobal network address. In the same fashion, a function may be exercisedsimply by "writing" to its global network address. Any microcontrollermay initiate read/write activity by sending a message on the 1² C bus tothe microcontroller responsible for the function (which can bedetermined from the known global address of the function). The networkmemory model includes typing information as part of the memoryaddressing information.

Using a network global memory model in one embodiment places relativelymodest requirements for the I² C message protocol.

All messages conform to the I² C message format including addressing andread/write indication.

All I² C messages use seven bit addressing.

Any controller can originate (be a Master) or respond (be a Slave).

All message transactions consist of I² C "Combined format" messages.This is made up of two back-to-back I² C simple messages with a repeatedSTART condition between (which does not allow for re-arbitrating thebus). The first message is a Write (Master to Slave) and the secondmessage is a Read (Slave to Master).

Two types of transactions are used: Memory-Read and Memory-Write.

Sub-Addressing formats vary depending on data type being used.

IV. REMOTE INTERFACE SERIAL PROTOCOL

The microcontroller network remote interface serial protocolcommunicates microcontroller network messages across a point-to-pointserial link. This link is between the RIB controller 200 that is incommunication with the Recovery Manager 130 at the remote client122/124. This protocol encapsulates microcontroller network messages ina transmission packet to provide error-free communication and linksecurity.

In one embodiment, the remote interface serial protocol uses the conceptof byte stuffing. This means that certain byte values in the data streamhave a particular meaning. If that byte value is transmitted by theunderlying application as data, it must be transmitted as a two-bytesequence.

The bytes that have a special meaning in this protocol are:

SOM 206 Start of a message

EOM 216 End of a message

SUB The next byte in the data stream must be substituted beforeprocessing.

INT 220 Event Interrupt

Data 212 An entire microcontroller network message

As state above, if any of these byte values occur as data in a message,a two-byte sequence must be substituted for that byte. The sequence is abyte with the value of SUB, followed by a type with the value of theoriginal byte, which is incremented by one. For example, if a SUB byteoccurs in a message, it is transmitted as a SUB followed by a byte thathas a value of SUB+1.

Referring to FIG. 3 the two types of messages 201 used by the remoteinterface serial protocol will be described.

1. Requests 202, which are sent by remote management (client) computers122/124 (FIG. 1) to the remote interface 104.

2. Responses 204, which are returned to the requester 122/124 by theremote interface 104.

The fields of the messages are defined as follows:

SOM 206 A special data byte value marking the start of a message.

EOM 216 A special data byte value marking the end of a message.

Seq.# 208 A one-byte sequence number, which is incremented on eachrequest. It is stored in the response.

TYPE 210 One of the following types of requests:

IDENTIFY Requests the remote interface to send back identificationinformation about the system to which it is connected. It also resetsthe next expected sequence number. Security authorization does not needto be established before the request is issued.

SECURE Establishes secure authorization on the serial link by checkingpassword security data provided in the message with the microcontrollernetwork password.

UNSECURE Clears security authorization on the link and attempts todisconnect it. This requires security authorization to have beenpreviously established.

MESSAGE Passes the data portions of the message to the microcontrollernetwork for execution. The response from the microcontroller network issent back in the data portion of the response. This requires securityauthorization to have been previously established.

POLL Queries the status of the remote interface. This request isgenerally used to determine if an event is pending in the remoteinterface.

STATUS 218 One of the following response status values:

OK Everything relating to communication with the remote interface issuccessful.

OK₋₋ EVENT Everything relating to communication with the remoteinterface is successful. In addition, there is one or more eventspending in the remote interface.

SEQUENCE The sequence number of the request is neither the currentsequence number or retransmission request, nor the next expectedsequence number or new request. Sequence numbers may be reset by anIDENTIFY request.

CHECK The check byte in the request message is received incorrectly.

FORMAT Something about the format of the message is incorrect. Mostlikely, the type field contains an invalid value.

SECURE The message requires that security authorization be in effect,or, if the message has a TYPE value of SECURE, the security checkfailed.

Check 214 Indicates a message integrity check byte. Currently the valueis 256 minus the sum of previous bytes in the message. For example,adding all bytes in the message up to and including the check byteshould produce a result of zero (0).

INT 220 A special one-byte message sent by the remote interface when itdetects the transition from no events pending to one or more eventspending. This message can be used to trigger reading events from theremote interface.

Events should be read until the return status changes form OK₋₋ EVENT toOK.

V. POWER-ON FLOW

The microcontroller network 102 (FIG. 1) performs various systemadministration tasks, such as, for example, monitoring the signals thatcome from server control switches, temperature sensors and clientcomputers. By such signals, the microcontroller network 102, forexample, turns on or turns off power to the server components, resetsthe server system, turns the system cooling fans to high, low or off,provides system operating parameters to the Basic Input/Output System(BIOS), transfers power-on self test (POST) events information from theBIOS, and/or sends data to a system display panel and remote computers.

Microcontroller Communication

A microcontroller, such as the remote interface microcontroller 200,handles two primary tasks: Sending and Receiving messages.

1. Handling the requests from other microcontrollers:

Incoming messages are handled based on interrupt, where a first byte ofan incoming message is the Slave Address which is checked by allcontrollers connected to the microcontroller bus 160 (FIG. 2). Whichevermicrocontroller has the matched ID would respond with an acknowledgementto the sender controller. The sender then sends one byte of the messagetype followed by a two byte command ID, low byte first. The next byte ofthe message defines the length of the data associated with the message.The first byte of the message also specifies whether it is a WRITE orREAD command. If it is a WRITE command, the slave controller executesthe command with the data provided in the message and sends back astatus response at the end of the task. If it is a READ command, theslave controller gathers the requested information and sends it back asthe response. The codes to execute request commands are classified ingroups according to the data type to simplify the code.

2. Sending a message to other microcontrollers:

Messages can be initiated by any controller on the bus 160 (FIG. 2). Forexample, the message can be an event detected by a controller and sentto the System Recorder controller and System Interface controller 106,or it could also be a message from the remote interface 104 (FIG. 1) toa specific controller on the bus 160. The sender usually sends the firstbyte defining the target processor and waits for the acknowledgement,which is the reverse logic from the Receiving a Message sequence. Thesender also generates the necessary clock for the communication.

Referring to FIGS. 4a, 4b and FIG. 1, a Power-On process 270 will now bedescribed. Process 270 begins at start state 272 and if a connectionbetween the client computer 122/124 and the server 100 is alreadyactive, process 270 proceeds to directly to state 296. Otherwise, if aconnection is not already active, process 270 proceeds to state 273 andutilizes the Recovery Manager software 130 to present a dialog window tothe user on a display of the client computer 122/124 requestinginformation. The user is requested to enter a password for securitypurposes. The dialog window also has a pair of radio-buttons to selecteither a serial (local) connection or a modem (remote) connection. Ifserial is selected, the user is requested to select a COM port. If modemis selected, the user is requested to enter a telephone number to beused in dialing the server modem.

Moving to decision state 274, process 270 determines if a modem-typeconnection was selected. A modem-type connection is generally utilizedin the situation where the client computer 124 is located at a locationremote from the server 100. If it is determined at decision state 274that a modem connection is utilized, process 270 moves to state 276wherein the client computer 124 is connected to the client modem 128.Moving to state 278, a connection is established between the clientmodem 128 and the server modem 126 via a communications network 127, aspreviously described above. Continuing at state 280, the server modem126 connects with the remote interface 104. Proceeding to state 282, theremote interface 104 connects to the server 100 via the RJ-45 cable 103.Moving to state 286, the Recovery Manager software 130 at the clientcomputer 124 dials the server modem 126 through the client modem 128,handshakes with the remote interface 104, and checks the previouslyentered password. Process 270 remains at state 286 until a successfulcommunication path with the remote interface 104 is established.

Returning to decision state 274, if a local connection 121 is utilizedinstead of the modem connection 123, process 270 proceeds to state 288wherein the local client computer 122 is connected with the remoteinterface 104. Moving to state 292, the remote interface 104 isconnected with the server 100. The previously entered password (at state273) is sent to the remote interface 104 to identify the user at thelocal computer 122. If the password matches a password that is stored inthe server system 100, the communication path with the remote interfaceis enabled.

After successful modem communication has been established and thepassword confirmed at state 286, or at the completion of connecting theremote interface to the server and checking the password at state 292,process 270 continues at state 296. At state 296, the Recovery Managersoftware 130 will in one embodiment display a recovery manager window920, which includes a server icon 922 as shown in FIG. 15. A serverwindow panel 928 and a confirmation dialog box 936 are not displayed atthis time. The user at the client computer 122/124 then selects theserver icon on the display, such as, for example by clicking a pointerdevice on the icon. Moving to state 298, the server window panel 928 isthen displayed to the user. The user confirmation box 936 is notdisplayed at this time. The user selects a Power On button 930 on thewindow panel 928 to trigger the power-on operation. Continuing at state300, the user confirmation dialog box 936 is then displayed on theclient computer display. If the user confirms that the server is to bepowered up, process 270 proceeds through off page connector A 302 tostate 304 on FIG. 4b.

At state 304, the Recovery Manager software 130 at the client computer122/124 provides a microcontroller network command (based on selectingthe Power On button) and sends it to communication layer software.Proceeding to state 306, the communication layer puts a communicationsprotocol around the command (from state 304) and sends the encapsulatedcommand to the server through the client modem 128, the server modem 126and the remote interface 104. The communications protocol was discussedin conjunction with FIG. 3 above. The encapsulated command is of theRequest type 202 shown in FIG. 3. The remote interface 104 converts theencapsulated command to the microcontroller network format, which isdescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/942,402, entitled"DIAGNOSTIC AND MANAGING DISTRIBUTED PROCESSOR SYSTEM," and in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 08/942,160, entitled "SYSTEM ARCHITECTUREFOR REMOTE ACCESS AND CONTROL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT." Process 270then continues to a function 310 wherein the server receives the commandand powers on the server. Function 310 will be further described inconjunction with FIG. 5.

Moving to state 312, the response generated by the server is then sentto the remote interface 104. In one embodiment, the microcontroller (theChassis controller 170 in this instance) performing the command at theserver returns status at the time of initiation of communication withthe microcontroller. At the completion of the power-on operation by theChassis controller 170, the Recovery Manager 130 sends a read statuscommand to the Chassis controller (using states 304 and 306) to retrieveinformation on the results of the operation.

Proceeding to decision state 314, process 270 determines if the power oncommand was successful. If so, process 270 proceeds to state 316 whereinthe remote interface 104 sends the response to the server modem 126indicating the success of the command. Alternatively, if a localconnection 121 is utilized, the response is sent to the local clientcomputer 122. However, if the power on is not successful, as determinedat decision state 314, process 270 proceeds to state 318 wherein theremote interface 104 sends the response to the server modem (or localclient computer) indicating a failure of the command. At the conclusionof either state 316 or 318, process 270 proceeds to state 320 whereinthe remote interface 104 sends the response back through the servermodem 126 to the client modem 128. Moving to state 322, the client modem128 sends the response back to the Recovery Manager software 130 at theremote client computer 124. Note that if the local connection 121 isbeing utilized, states 320 and 322 are not necessary. Proceeding todecision state 324, process 270 determines whether the command wassuccessful. If so, process 270 continues at state 326 and displays aresult window showing the success of the command on the display at theclient computer 122/124. However, if the command was not successful,process 270 proceeds to state 328 wherein a result window showingfailure of the command is displayed to the user. Moving to state 330,the details of the command information are available, if the user sodesires, by selecting a details button. At the completion of state 326or state 330, process 270 completes at end state 332.

Referring to FIG. 5, one embodiment of the server Power On function 310will now be described. Beginning at start state 360, function 310proceeds to state 362 and logs the requested power-on to the server 100in the System Recorder memory 112. Proceeding to decision state 364,function 310 determines if a system over-temperature condition is set.If so, function 310 proceeds to state 366 and sends a over-temperaturemessage to the remote interface 104. Advancing to state 368, because thesystem over-temperature condition is set, the power-on process isstopped and function 310 returns at a return state 370.

Returning to decision state 364, if the system over-temperaturecondition is not set, function 310 proceeds to state 372 and sets aninternal power-on indicator and a reset/run countdown timer. In oneembodiment, the reset/run countdown timer is set to a value of five.Advancing to state 374, function 310 turns on the power and cooling fansfor the server system board 150, backplane 152 and I/O canisters. Themicrocontroller network holds the main system processor reset/runcontrol line in the reset state until the reset/run countdown timerexpires to allow the system power to stabilize. When the timer expiresthen the reset/run control is set to "run" and the system processor(s)begin their startup sequence by proceeding to state 376 and calling aBIOS Power-On Self Test (POST) routine. Moving to state 378, the BIOSinitializes a PCI-ISA bridge and a microcontroller network driver.Continuing to state 380, the microcontroller network software monitors:hardware temperatures, switches on a control panel on the server, andsignals from the remote interface 104. In one embodiment, state 380 maybe performed anywhere during states 376 to 394 because the BIOSoperations are performed by the server CPUs 164 (FIG. 2) independentlyof the microcontroller network 102. Function 310 then moves to a BIOSPOST Coldstart function 386. In the Coldstart POST function,approximately 61 BIOS subroutines are called. The major groups of theColdstart path include: CPU initialization, DMA/timer reset, BIOS imagecheck, chipset initialization, CPU register initialization, CMOS test,PCI initialization, extended memory check, cache enable, and messagedisplay.

At the completion of the BIOS POST Coldstart function 386, function 310proceeds to state 388 where BIOS POST events are logged in the SystemRecorder memory 112. Proceeding to state 390, the BIOS POST performsserver port initialization. Continuing at state 392, the BIOS POSTinitializes the Operating System related controllers (e.g., floppycontroller, hard disk controller) and builds a multi-processor table.Advancing to state 394, the BIOS POST performs an OS boot preparationsequence. Function 310 ends at a return state 398.

VI. POWER-OFF FLOW

Referring to FIGS. 6a, 6b and FIG. 1, one embodiment of a Power-Offprocess 420 will now be described. Process 420 begins at start state 422and if a connection between the client computer 122/124 and the server100 is already active, process 420 proceeds to directly to state 446.Otherwise, if a connection is not already active, process 420 proceedsto state 423 and utilizes the Recovery Manager software 130 to present adialog window to the user on a display of the client computer 122/124requesting information. The user is requested to enter a password forsecurity purposes. The dialog window also has a pair of radio-buttons toselect either a serial (local) connection or a modem (remote)connection. If serial is selected, the user is requested to select a COMport. If modem is selected, the user is requested to enter a telephonenumber to be used in dialing the server modem.

Moving to decision state 424, process 420 determines if the modem-typeconnection 123 will be utilized. The modem-type connection is generallyutilized in the situation where the client computer 124 is located at alocation remote from the server 100. If it is determined at decisionstate 424 that a modem connection is utilized, process 420 moves tostate 426 wherein the client computer 124 is connected to the clientmodem 128. Moving to state 428, a connection is established between theclient modem 128 and the server modem 126 via the communications network127. Continuing at state 430, the server modem 126 connects with theremote interface 104. Proceeding to state 432, the remote interface 104connects to the server 100 via the RJ-45 cable 103. Moving to state 436,the Recovery Manager software 130 at the client computer 124 dials theserver modem 126 through the client modem 128, handshakes with theremote interface 104, and checks the previously entered password.Process 420 remains at state 436 until a successful communication pathwith the remote interface 104 is established.

Returning to decision state 424, if the local connection 121 is utilizedinstead of the modem connection 123, process 420 proceeds to state 438wherein the local client computer 122 is connected with the remoteinterface 104. Moving to state 442, the remote interface 104 isconnected with the server 100. The previously entered password (at state423) is sent to the remote interface 104 to identify the user at thelocal computer 122. If the password matches the password that is storedin the server system 100, the communication path with the remoteinterface 104 is enabled.

After successful modem communication has been established and thepassword confirmed at state 436, or at the completion of checking thepassword at state 442, process 420 continues at state 446. At state 446,the Recovery Manager software 130 will in one embodiment display theRecovery Manager window 920, which includes the server icon 922 as shownin FIG. 15. The server window panel 928 and the confirmation dialog box936 are not displayed at this time. The user at the client computer122/124 then selects the server icon 922 on the display, such as byclicking the pointer device on the icon. Moving to state 448, the serverwindow panel 928 (FIG. 15) is then displayed to the user. The userselects a Power Off button 932 on the window panel 928 to trigger thepower-off operation. Continuing at state 450, a user confirmation dialogbox is then displayed on the client computer display. If the userconfirms that the server is to be powered down, process 420 proceedsthrough off page connector A 452 to state 454 on FIG. 6b.

At state 454, the Recovery Manager software 130 at the client computer122/124 provides a microcontroller network command (based on selectingthe Power Off button) and sends it to communication layer software.Proceeding to state 456, the communication layer puts a communicationsprotocol around the command (from state 454) and sends the encapsulatedcommand to the server through the client modem 128, the server modem 126and the remote interface 104. The encapsulated command is of the Requesttype 202 shown in FIG. 3. Process 420 then continues to a function 460wherein the server receives the command and powers off the server.Function 460 will be further described in conjunction with FIG. 7.

Moving to state 462, the response generated by the server is then sentto the remote interface 104. In one embodiment, the microcontroller (theChassis controller 170 in this instance) performing the command at theserver returns status at the time of initiation of communication withthe microcontroller. At the completion of the power-off operation by theChassis controller 170, the Recovery Manager 130 sends a read statuscommand to the Chassis controller (using states 454 and 456) to retrieveinformation on the results of the operation.

Proceeding to decision state 464, process 420 determines if the poweroff command was successful. If so, process 420 proceeds to state 466wherein the remote interface 104 sends the response to the server modem126 indicating the success of the command. Alternatively, if a localconnection 121 is utilized, the response is sent to the local clientcomputer 122. However, if the power off is not successful, as determinedat decision state 464, process 270 proceeds to state 468 wherein theremote interface 104 sends the response to the server modem (or localclient computer) indicating a failure of the command. At the conclusionof either state 466 or 468, process 420 proceeds to state 470 whereinthe remote interface 104 sends the response back through the servermodem 126 to the client modem 128. Moving to state 472, the client modem128 sends the response back to the Recovery Manager software 130 at theremote client computer 124. Note that if the local connection 121 isbeing utilized, states 470 and 472 are not necessary. Proceeding todecision state 474, process 420 determines whether the command wassuccessful. If so, process 420 continues at state 476 and displays aresult window showing the success of the command on the display at theclient computer 122/124. However, if the command was not successful,process 420 proceeds to state 478 wherein a result window showingfailure of the command is displayed to the user. Moving to state 480,the details of the command information are available, if the user sodesires, by selecting a details button. At the completion of state 476or state 480, process 420 completes at end state 482.

Referring to FIG. 7, the server Power-Off function 460 will now bedescribed. Beginning at start state 500, function 460 proceeds to state502 and logs the requested Power-Off message in the System Recordermemory 112 (FIG. 2) by use of the System Recorder controller 110. Movingto state 504, function 460 clears a system run indicator and clears thereset/run countdown timer. Moving to state 506, function 460 clears aninternal power-on indicator. In one embodiment, the power-on indicatoris stored by a variable "S4₋₋ power₋₋ on". Function 460 utilizes the CPUA controller 166 for state 504 and the Chassis controller 170 for state506. Continuing at state 508, function 460 turns off the power and thecooling fans for the system board 150, the backplane 152 and thecanister(s) associated with the Canister controllers 172-178. Function460 ends at a return state 512.

VII. RESET FLOW

Referring to FIGS. 8a, 8b and FIG. 1, one embodiment of a Reset process540 will now be described. Process 540 begins at start state 542 and ifa connection between the client computer 122/124 and the server 100 isalready active, process 540 proceeds to directly to state 566.Otherwise, if a connection is not already active, process 540 proceedsto state 543 and utilizes the Recovery Manager software 130 to present adialog window to the user on a display of the client computer 122/124requesting information. The user is requested to enter a password forsecurity purposes. The dialog window also has a pair of radio-buttons toselect either a serial (local) connection or a modem (remote)connection. If serial is selected, the user is requested to select a COMport. If modem is selected, the user is requested to enter a telephonenumber to be used in dialing the server modem.

Moving to decision state 544, process 540 determines if the modem-typeconnection 123 was selected. The modem-type connection is generallyutilized in the situation where the client computer 124 is located at alocation remote from the server 100. If it is determined at decisionstate 544 that a modem connection is utilized, process 540 moves tostate 546 wherein the client computer 124 is connected to the clientmodem 128. Moving to state 548, a connection is established between theclient modem 128 and the server modem 126 via the communications network127. Continuing at state 550, the server modem 126 connects with theremote interface 104. Proceeding to state 552, the remote interface 104connects to the server 100 via the RJ-45 cable 103. Moving to state 556,the Recovery Manager software 130 at the client computer 124 dials theserver modem 126 through the client modem 128, handshakes with theremote interface 104, and checks the previously entered password.Process 540 remains at state 556 until a successful communication pathwith the remote interface 104 is established.

Returning to decision state 544, if the local connection 121 is utilizedinstead of the modem connection 123, process 540 proceeds to state 558wherein the local client computer 122 is connected with the remoteinterface 104. Moving to state 562, the remote interface 104 isconnected with the server 100. The password previously entered (at state543) is sent to the remote interface 104 to identify the user at thelocal computer 122. If the password matches the password that is storedin the server system 100, the communication path with the remoteinterface 104 is enabled.

After successful modem communication has been established and thepassword confirmed at state 556, or at the completion of connecting theremote interface to the server and checking the password at state 562,process 540 continues at state 566. At state 566, the Recovery Managersoftware 130 will in one embodiment display the Recovery Manager window920, which includes the server icon 922 as shown in FIG. 15. The serverwindow panel 928 and the confirmation dialog box 936 are not displayedat this time. The user at the client computer 122/124 then selects theserver icon 922 on the display, such as by clicking the pointer deviceon the icon. Moving to state 568, the server window panel 928 (FIG. 15)is then displayed to the user. The user confirmation box 936 is notdisplayed at this time. The user selects a System Reset button 934 onthe window panel 928 to trigger the System Reset operation. Continuingat state 570, a user confirmation dialog box is then displayed on theclient computer display. If the user confirms that the system is to bereset, process 540 proceeds through off page connector A 572 to decisionstate 574 on FIG. 8b.

At decision state 574, process 540 determines if the server is currentlyrunning (powered up, such as after a power on command has been issued).If not, process 540 continues to state 576 wherein a warning messagethat the server must be running to execute a system reset is displayedon the client computer display to the user. After the warning has beendisplayed, process 540 moves to end state 578 to terminate the resetprocess. However, if the server is running, as determined at decisionstate 574, process 540 proceeds to state 580.

At state 580, the Recovery Manager software 130 at the client computer122/124 provides a microcontroller network command (based on selectingthe System Reset button) and sends it to the communication layersoftware. Proceeding to state 582, the communication layer puts acommunications protocol around the command (from state 580) and sendsthe encapsulated command to the server through the client modem 128, theserver modem 126 and the remote interface 104. The encapsulated commandis of the Request type 202 shown in FIG. 3. Process 540 then continuesto a function 590 wherein the server receives the command and resets theserver. Function 590 will be further described in conjunction with FIG.9.

Moving to state 592, the response generated by the server is then sentto the remote interface 104. In one embodiment, the microcontroller (theCPU A controller 166 in this instance) performing the command at theserver returns status at the time of initiation of communication withthe microcontroller. At the completion of the reset operation by the CPUA controller 166, the Recovery Manager 130 sends a read status commandto the CPU A controller (using states 580 and 582) to retrieveinformation on the results of the operation.

Proceeding to decision state 594, process 540 determines if the systemreset command was successful. If so, process 540 proceeds to state 596wherein the remote interface 104 sends the response to the server modem126 indicating the success of the command. Alternatively, if a localconnection 121 is utilized, the response is sent to the local clientcomputer 122. However, if the system reset is not successful, asdetermined at decision state 594, process 540 proceeds to state 598wherein the remote interface 104 sends the response to the server modem(or local client computer) indicating a failure of the command. At theconclusion of either state 596 or 598, process 540 proceeds to state 600wherein the remote interface 104 sends the response back through theserver modem 126 to the client modem 128. Moving to state 602, theclient modem 128 sends the response back to the Recovery Managersoftware 130 at the remote client computer 124. Note that if the localconnection 121 is being utilized, states 600 and 602 are not necessary.Proceeding to decision state 604, process 540 determines whether thecommand was successful. If so, process 540 continues at state 606 anddisplays a result window showing the success of the command on thedisplay at the client computer 122/124. However, if the command was notsuccessful, process 540 proceeds to state 608 wherein a result windowshowing failure of the command is displayed to the user. Moving to state610, the details of the command information are available, if the userso desires, by selecting a details button. At the completion of state606 or state 610, process 540 completes at end state 612.

Referring to FIG. 9, the server reset function 590 will now bedescribed. Beginning at start state 630, function 590 proceeds to theBIOS POST Warmstart function 384. In the Warmstart function 384,approximately 41 subroutines are called. These include the generaloperations of: reset flag, DMA/timer reset, chipset initialization, CMOStest, PCI initialization, cache enable, and message display. At thecompletion of the BIOS POST Warmstart function 384, function 590proceeds to state 388 where BIOS POST events are logged in the SystemRecorder memory 112. Proceeding to state 390, the BIOS POST performsserver port initialization. Continuing at state 392, the BIOS POSTinitializes the Operating System related controllers (e.g., floppy diskcontroller, hard disk controller) and builds a multi-processor table.Advancing to state 394, the BIOS POST performs an OS boot preparationsequence. Moving to state 632, the BIOS initiates an OS boot sequence tobring the operating software to an operational state. Function 590 endsat a return state 636.

VIII. FLIGHT RECORDER FLOW

A Flight Recorder, which includes the System Recorder controller 110 andthe System Recorder memory 112, provides a subsystem for recording atime-stamped history of events leading up to a failure in server system100. The System Recorder memory 112 may also store identification ofcomponents of the server system. In one embodiment, the System Recorder110 is the only controller which does not initiate messages to othercontrollers. The System Recorder 110 receives event log information fromother controllers and stores the data into the System Recorder memory112. Upon request, the System Recorder 110 can send a portion and/or theentire logged data to a requesting controller. The System Recorder 110puts a time stamp from a real-time clock with the data that is saved.

Referring to FIGS. 10a, 10b and FIG. 1, one embodiment of a DisplayFlight Recorder process 670 will now be described. Process 670 begins atstart state 672 and if a connection between the client computer 122/124and the server 100 is already active, process 670 proceeds to directlyto state 696. Otherwise, if a connection is not already active, process670 proceeds to state 673 and utilizes the Recovery Manager software 130to present a dialog window to the user on a display of the clientcomputer 122/124 requesting information. The user is requested to entera password for security purposes. The dialog window also has a pair ofradio-buttons to select either a serial (local) connection or a modem(remote) connection. If serial is selected, the user is requested toselect a COM port. If modem is selected, the user is requested to entera telephone number to be used in dialing the server modem.

Moving to decision state 674, process 670 determines if the modem-typeconnection 123 was selected. The modem-type connection is generallyutilized in the situation where the client computer 124 is located at alocation remote from the server 100. If it is determined at decisionstate 674 that a modem connection is utilized, process 670 moves tostate 676 wherein the client computer 124 is connected to the clientmodem 128. Moving to state 678, a connection is established between theclient modem 128 and the server modem 126 via the communications network127. Continuing at state 680, the server modem 126 connects with theremote interface 104. Proceeding to state 682, the remote interface 104connects to the server 100 via the RJ-45 cable 103. Moving to state 686,the Recovery Manager software 130 at the client computer 124 dials theserver modem 126 through the client modem 128, handshakes with theremote interface 104, and checks the previously entered password.Process 670 remains at state 686 until a successful communication pathwith the remote interface 104 is established.

Returning to decision state 674, if the local connection 121 is utilizedinstead of the modem connection 123, process 670 proceeds to state 688wherein the local client computer 122 is connected with the remoteinterface 104. Moving to state 692, the remote interface 104 isconnected with the server 100. The previously entered password (at state673) is sent to the remote interface 104 to identify the user at thelocal computer 122. If the password matches the password that is storedin the server system 100, the communication path with the remoteinterface 104 is enabled.

After successful modem communication has been established and thepassword confirmed at state 686, or at the completion of connecting theremote interface to the server and checking the password at state 692,process 670 continues at state 696. At state 696, the Recovery Managersoftware 130 will in one embodiment display a Recovery Manager window940, which includes a Flight Recorder icon 942 as shown in FIG. 16. AFlight Recorder window panel 944 is not displayed at this time. The userat the client computer 122/124 then selects the Flight Recorder icon 942on the display, such as by clicking the pointer device on the icon.Moving to state 698, the Flight Recorder window panel 944 (FIG. 16) isthen displayed to the user. The user selects a Download button 954 onthe window panel 944 to trigger the display of the Flight Recorderoperation. Note that other options in the Flight Recorder window panel944 include a Save button 956 for saving a downloaded Flight Recorder(system log or System Recorder memory 112, FIG. 1) and a Print button958 for printing the downloaded Flight Recorder. Continuing at state700, a user confirmation dialog box (not shown) is then displayed on theclient computer display showing a number of messages in the serversystem log. Moving to state 702, if the user selects the "OK" button,process 670 displays a progress window of downloaded messages. Process670 proceeds through off page connector A 703 to state 704 on FIG. 10b.

At state 704, the Recovery Manager software 130 at the client computer122/124 provides a microcontroller network command (based on selectingthe Download Flight Recorder button 954) and sends it to thecommunication layer software. Proceeding to state 706, the communicationlayer puts a communications protocol around the command (from state 704)and sends the encapsulated command to the server through the clientmodem 128, the server modem 126 and the remote interface 104. Theencapsulated command is of the Request type 202 shown in FIG. 3. Process670 then continues to a function 710 wherein the server receives thecommand and reads the contents of the System Recorder memory 112 (FIG.1). In one embodiment, each read request generates one response suchthat the Recovery Manager 130 generates multiple read requests to readthe complete system log. The server generates one log response duringfunction 710. Function 710 will be further described in conjunction withFIG. 11.

Moving to state 712, each of the responses generated by the server arethen sent one at a time to the remote interface 104. Process 670 thenproceeds to state 714 wherein the remote interface 104 sends eachresponse back through the server modem 126 to the client modem 128.Alternatively, if a local connection 121 is utilized, each response issent directly to the local client computer 122. Moving to state 716, theclient modem 128 sends the response back to the Recovery Managersoftware 130 at the remote client computer 124. Note that if the localconnection 121 is being utilized, state 716 is not necessary. Proceedingto decision state 718, process 670 determines whether the entiredownload of the Flight Recorder was successful by checking for an end ofsystem log messages status. If so, process 670 continues at state 720wherein the Recovery Manager 130 (FIG. 1) displays (and optionallystores) all messages in the Flight Recorder window panel 944 on thedisplay at the client computer 122/124. However, if the entire downloadwas not successful, process 670 proceeds to state 722 wherein theRecovery Manager 130 displays (and optionally stores) all messages thatwere received by the Recovery Manager 120 in the Flight Recorder windowpanel 944. At the completion of state 720 or state 722, process 670completes at end state 724.

In one embodiment, the Flight Recorder window panel 944 includes fourfields: Time Stamp 946, Severity 948, Message Source 950, and Message952. Each message in the system log 112 includes a time stamp 946 ofwhen the item was written to the log 112. The time stamp includes thedate and the local time zone of the client computer 122/124 running theRecovery Manager 130. In one embodiment, the time stamp information isgenerated by a timer chip 760 (FIG. 12a). The Severity field 948includes a severity value selected from: unknown, informational,warning, error, and severe/fatal. The Message Source field 950 includesa source selected from: microcontroller network internal, onboarddiagnostics, external diagnostics, BIOS, time synchronizer, Windows®,Windows®, NetWare, OS/2, UNIX, and VAX/VMS. The messages in the Messagefield 952 correspond to the data returned by the controllers on themicrocontroller network 102. The controller message data is used toaccess a set of Message tables associated with the Recovery Manager 130on the client computer 122/124 to generate the information displayed inthe Message field 952. The Message tables include a microcontrollernetwork (wire services) table, a BIOS table and a diagnostics table. Anexemplary message from the microcontroller network table includes"temperature sensor #5 exceeds warning threshold". An exemplary messagefrom the BIOS table includes "check video configuration against CMOS".An exemplary message from the diagnostics table includes "correctablememory error".

Referring to FIG. 11, the Read NVRAM Contents function 710 will now bedescribed. Beginning at start state 740, function 710 proceeds to state742 and loads a block log pointer. The System Recorder memory or NVRAM112 (FIG. 2) has two 64K byte memory blocks. The first block is a memoryblock which stores ID codes of the devices installed in the network.Hence, a command addressed to the first block is typically generated bya controller responsible for updating the presence or absence of devicesin the network. The second block of the memory 112 is a memory blockthat stores event messages in connection with events occurring in thenetwork. Hence controllers addressing the second block do so to addentries to the system log or to read previous entries contained in thesystem log. The System Recorder uses log address pointers to determinewhere the next new entry in the log should be placed and also todetermine where the log is currently being read from. A furtherdescription of the System Recorder 110 and the NVRAM 112 is provided inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/942,381, entitled, "BLACK BOXRECORDER FOR INFORMATION SYSTEM EVENTS".

Moving to state 744, function 710 reads the log message as addressed bythe log pointer. Proceeding to state 746, function 710 returns the logmessage to the requestor on the microcontroller bus 160 (FIG. 2), whichis the remote interface controller 200 in this situation. In oneembodiment, the remote interface 104 stores the message in a memory 762(FIG. 12c) on the RIB. Proceeding to state 748, process 710 incrementsthe log pointer to point to the next address in the NVRAM block.Continuing at decision state 750, function 710 determines if the end ofthe messages in the System Recorder memory block has been reached. Ifnot, function 710 proceeds to a normal return state 752. If the end ofthe messages has been reached, as determined at decision state 750,function 710 moves to a return state 754 and returns a End of Messagesstatus. The Recovery Manager 130 utilizes this status information tostop sending requests to read the System Recorder memory 112.

IX. SYSTEM STATUS FLOW

FIGS. 12a, 12b and 12c are a detailed block diagram of themicrocontroller network components showing specific inputs and outputsof the microcontrollers. An I/O Canister card 758 has fan speeddetection circuitry 765 to provide fan speed information to the Canistercontroller 172 through a fan multiplexer 767. The CPU A controller 166receives fan speed information from fan speed detection circuitry 764through a fan multiplexer 765.

Referring to FIGS. 13a, 13b and FIG. 1, one embodiment of a SystemStatus process 770 will now be described. Process 770 begins at startstate 772 and if a connection between the client computer 122/124 andthe server 100 is already active, process 770 proceeds to directly tostate 796. Otherwise, if a connection is not already active, process 770proceeds to state 773 and utilizes the Recovery Manager software 130 topresent a dialog window to the user on a display of the client computer122/124 requesting information. The user is requested to enter apassword for security purposes. The dialog window also has a pair ofradio-buttons to select either a serial (local) connection or a modem(remote) connection. If serial is selected, the user is requested toselect a COM port. If modem is selected, the user is requested to entera telephone number to be used in dialing the server modem.

Moving to decision state 774, process 770 determines if the modem-typeconnection 123 was selected. The modem-type connection is generallyutilized in the situation where the client computer 124 is located at alocation remote from the server 100. If it is determined at decisionstate 774 that a modem connection is utilized, process 770 moves tostate 776 wherein the client computer 124 is connected to the clientmodem 128. Moving to state 778, a connection is established between theclient modem 128 and the server modem 126 via the communications network127. Continuing at state 780, the server modem 126 connects with theremote interface 104. Proceeding to state 782, the remote interface 104connects to the server 100 via the RJ-45 cable 103. Moving to state 786,the Recovery Manager software 130 at the client computer 124 dials theserver modem 126 through the client modem 128, handshakes with theremote interface 104, and checks the previously entered password.Process 770 remains at state 786 until a successful communication pathwith the remote interface 104 is established.

Returning to decision state 774, if the local connection 121 is utilizedinstead of the modem connection 123, process 770 proceeds to state 788wherein the local client computer 122 is connected with the remoteinterface 104. Moving to state 792, the remote interface 104 isconnected with the server 100. The previously entered password (at state773) is sent to the remote interface 104 to identify the user at thelocal computer 122. If the password matches the password that is storedin the server system 100, the communication path with the remoteinterface 104 is enabled.

After successful modem communication has been established and thepassword confirmed at state 786, or at the completion of connecting theremote interface to the server and checking the password at state 792,process 770 continues at state 796. At state 796, the Recovery Managersoftware 130 will in one embodiment display a Recovery Manager window960, which includes a System Status icon 970 as shown in FIG. 17. ASystem Status window panel 962 is not displayed at this time. The userat the client computer 122/124 then selects the System Status icon 970on the display, such as by clicking the pointer device on the icon.Moving to state 798, the System Status window panel 962 (FIG. 17) isthen displayed to the user. The user selects one of a multiple set ofcomponent icons 972-984 on the window panel 962 to initiate a SystemStatus operation. In one embodiment, icon 972 is for Power Supplies,icon 974 is for Temperatures, icon 976 is for Fans, icon 978 is forProcessor, icon 980 is for I/O Canisters, icon 982 is for Serial Numbersand icon 984 is for Revisions. When the user selects one of the icons972-984, the Recovery Manager 130 displays a component window panel tothe user, such as exemplary Fans window panel 994 (FIG. 18) if the userselected the Fans icon 976.

In one embodiment, the exemplary Fans window panel 994 (FIG. 18)includes several fields 985-991: field 985 is for Fan Location, field986 is for Fan Number within the Location, field 987 is for Fan Speed(rpm, as detected by-the microcontrollers 166 and 172 (FIG. 12)), field988 is for Fan Speed Control (high or low), field 989 is for FaultIndicator LED (on or off), field 990 is for Fan Fault (yes or no), andfield 991 is for Fan Low-speed Fault Threshold Speed (rpm). Note thatthis exemplary Fans window panel 994 includes a Refresh button 992 whichtriggers a retrieval of new values for the fields of the panel.

If the user selects a Canister A icon 1000 in the Recovery Managerwindow panel 960, the Recovery Manager 130 displays an exemplary Fansdetail window panel 1002 (FIG. 19). This exemplary panel 1002 providesstatus information for the fans of the selected Canister A, which inthis embodiment includes a status box 1004 for a Fan 1 and a status box1006 for Fan 2 along with a Canister Present indicator 1008 and a FaultIndicator Led box 1010. These status items 1004-1010 are refreshed (newstatus information is retrieved) if the user selects a Refresh button1012. A Fan Low-speed Fault Threshold Speed entry box 1020 and a FanSpeed Control radio button box 1022 allow the user to enter new valuesif it desired to change the current settings. An Update operation tochange the values of the settings is initiated if the user selects theUpdate button 1024.

Continuing in FIG. 13a at decision state 799, process 770 determines ifthe Refresh Status operation is to be performed, if for example, theuser selected a Refresh button on one of the System status windows. Ifso, process 770 proceeds to state 800 and initiates the Refreshoperation to retrieve new status information for display to the user. Ifthe Refresh operation is not selected, as determined at decision state799, process 770 advances to decision state 801 to determine if theUpdate operation is to be performed, if for example, the user selected aUpdate button on one of the System status windows. If so, process 770proceeds to state 802 and initiates the Update operation to update itemsettings that the user desires to change. At the completion of eitherstate 800 or state 802, or if the user selects another status option(e.g., Help), process 670 proceeds through off page connector A 803 tostate 804 on FIG. 13b.

At state 804, the Recovery Manager software 130 at the client computer122/124 provides a microcontroller network command (based on selectingone of System Status operations (e.g., Update, Refresh)) and sends it tothe communication layer software. Proceeding to state 806, thecommunication layer puts a communications protocol around the command(from state 804) and sends the encapsulated command to the serverthrough the client modem 128, the server modem 126 and the remoteinterface 104. The encapsulated command is of the Request type 202 shownin FIG. 3. Process 770 then continues to a function 810 wherein theserver receives the command and retrieves or updates the selected statusinformation for the selected item(s), e.g., Fans. In one embodiment, forexample, each Refresh request generates one response such that theRecovery Manager 130 generates multiple Refresh requests to retrieve thecomplete set of status information. Function 810 will be furtherdescribed in conjunction with FIG. 14.

Moving to state 812, each of the responses generated by the server arethen sent one at a time to the remote interface 104. Process 770 thenproceeds to state 814 wherein the remote interface 104 sends eachresponse back through the server modem 126 to the client modem 128.Alternatively, if a local connection 121 is utilized, each response issent directly to the local client computer 122. Moving to state 822, theclient modem 128 sends the response back to the Recovery Managersoftware 130 at the remote client computer 124. Proceeding to decisionstate 824, process 770 determines whether the executed command was aRetrieve (Refresh) or Update command. If the command was a Retrieve,process 770 moves to decision state 826 to determine if the Retrieveoperation was successful. If so, process 770 continues to state 828wherein the Recovery Manager 130 (FIG. 1) displays the new system statusinformation in a System Status window panel (such as window panel 994(FIG. 18) or window panel 1002 (FIG. 19)) on the display at the clientcomputer 122/124. However, if the Refresh operation was not successful,process 770 proceeds to state 830 wherein the Recovery Manager 130 showsnew status information for the items that the new status information hasbeen successfully received (if any).

Returning to decision state 824, if the command was an Update, process770 moves to decision state 834 to determine if the Update operation wassuccessful. If so, process 770 continues to state 836 wherein theRecovery Manager 130 (FIG. 1) displays an Update Successful indicationin the appropriate Status window. However, if the Update operation wasnot successful, process 770 proceeds to state 838 wherein the RecoveryManager 130 displays an Update Failure indication in the appropriateStatus window. Moving to state 840, the details of the commandinformation are available, if the user so desires, by selecting aDetails button (not shown). At the completion of any of states 828, 830,836 or 840, process 770 completes at end state 842.

Referring to FIG. 14, the Server System Status function 810 will now bedescribed. Beginning at start state 870, function 810 proceeds to state872 wherein each microcontroller on the microcontroller network bus 160(FIG. 2) checks to see if the address field of the system commandreceived from the recovery manager 130 (FIG. 1) at the client computermatches that of the microcontroller. Continuing at state 874, theaddressed microcontroller executes a command, e.g., retrieve data orupdate data. Continuing at state 876 the addressed microcontroller sendsa response message back on the microcontroller bus 160 to the controllerthat initiated the command, which is the remote interface controller 200(FIG. 2) in this situation. Moving to decision state 878, function 810determines whether additional items are selected for retrieval orupdate. If so, function 810 moves to state 880 to access the nextcommand and then moves back to state 872 wherein each microcontrolleragain checks to see if it is addressed. The single addressedmicrocontroller performs states 872, 874 and 876. If there are no moreitems selected for retrieval or update, as determined at decision state878, function 810 proceeds to a return state 882 where function 810completes.

States 878, 880 and 882 are performed by the Recovery Manager 130 at theclient computer 122/124. For example, if the user wanted system statuson all the fans by selecting the Fan icon 976 (FIG. 18), the RecoveryManager 130 generates one command for each of a selected group ofmicrocontrollers for retrieving fan information. Thus, a command to readfan information from CPU A controller 166 (FIG. 2) is sent out and aresponse received, followed by a command to and response from Canister Acontroller 172, and so on through Canister B controller 174, Canister Ccontroller 176 and Canister D controller 178.

In one embodiment, the System Status windows provide the followingstatus information:

System Status: Power Supplies

This window displays power supply status information. To obtain currentinformation, click Refresh. This information includes:

Present: Indicates the power supply is installed and present

A.C.: Indicates whether the power supply is receiving A.C. power.

D.C.: Indicates whether the power supply is supplying D.C. voltage.

Power: Indicates the server is On or Off.

Output Voltages: Indicates the power (in volts) generated by each powersupply line.

System Status: Temperature

This window displays information about the operational temperatures ofthe server. To obtain current temperature information, click Refresh. Toapply any changes made in this window, click Update.

Temperature Sensor 1: Indicates the temperature measured by Sensor 1.

Temperature Sensor 2: Indicates the temperature measured by Sensor 2.

Temperature Sensor 3: Indicates the temperature measured by Sensor 3.

Temperature Sensor 4: Indicates the temperature measured by Sensor 4.

Temperature Sensor 5: Indicates the temperature measured by Sensor 5.

Warning Level: Shows the temperature warning level (in one embodiment,the default is 55 degrees Celsius). When any temperature sensor measuresthis level or higher, a warning is issued. To change the warning level,enter a new temperature and click Update.

Shutdown Level: Shows the temperature shutdown level (in one embodiment,the default is 70 degrees Celsius). When any temperature sensor measuresthis level or higher, the server is automatically shut down. To changethe shutdown level, enter a new temperature and click Update.

Show Temp in Degrees: Select whether the temperatures are in Celsius orFahrenheit.

System Overtemp?: Indicates whether the server temperature is above theWarning threshold.

System Status: Fans

This window displays server and group fan status information. To obtaincurrent status information, click Refresh. The information that appearsin this window includes:

Location: Indicates the location of the fan. Options include SystemBoard and Groups A or B.

Fans 1-6 (System Board), 1-2 (Group): Indicates the location of the fan.For information on the physical location, click here Location icon.

Speed: Displays the fan operating speed (in RPM).

Speed Control: Indicates the fan is operating at High or Low speed.

Fault Indicator LED: Indicates the Fan Fault LED on the server enclosureis On or Off.

Fault: Indicates whether the fan failed.

Low-speed Fault Threshold Speed: Displays the low-speed fault thresholdspeed. When a fan drops below this speed, the fan is reported as failed.To change failure level, enter a new speed (in RPM) and click Update. Inone embodiment, the speed is entered in increments of 60 (e.g., 60, 120,180, etc.).

Note: To view status information on a specific group of fans, changetheir speed, or modify the speed at which they are considered failed,double-click the fan group's icon.

System Board Fans

This window displays information about the status of the system boardfans. To obtain current information, click Refresh. To apply any changesmade in this window, click Update.

Group X Fans

This window displays information about the status of the fans in theselected group. To obtain current information, click Refresh. To applyany changes made in this window, click Update.

Canister X Fans

This window displays information about the status of the fans in theselected canister. To obtain current information, click Refresh. Toapply any changes made in this window, click Update.

System Status: Processor

This window displays processor status information. To obtain currentinformation, click Refresh. This information includes: CPU 1-4:Indicates the location of the CPU.

Present: Indicates whether the CPU is installed.

Power: Indicates whether the system is receiving power.

Overtemp: Indicates whether the system is running above operatingtemperature.

Error: Indicates whether a CPU internal error occurred.

NMI Control: Indicates whether NMI control is active or inactive.

Any Fault?: Indicates whether faults or errors occurred on any installedprocessors.

Bus/Core Speed Ratio: Indicates the server's Bus/Core speed ratio, arelative indicator of processor performance.

CPU X Status:

This window displays status information for the selected CPU. To obtaincurrent information, click Refresh. To apply any changes made in thiswindow, click Update.

Present: When selected, the CPU is installed.

Power: Indicates whether the system is receiving power.

Overtemp: Indicates whether the system is running above operatingtemperature.

Error: Indicates whether a CPU internal error occurred.

NMI Control: Indicates NMI control is active or inactive.

System Status: I/O Groups

This window displays I/O group status information. To obtain currentinformation, click Refresh. This information includes: PCI 1-4:Indicates whether a peripheral card is installed in the specified PCIslot.

PCI Power: Indicates whether the canister's PCI bus is receiving power.

System Status: I/O Canisters

This window displays I/O canister status information. To obtain currentinformation, click Refresh. This information includes:

Status: Indicates the canister is inserted or removed.

PCI 1-4: Indicates whether a peripheral card is installed in thespecified PCI slot.

PCI Power: Indicates whether the canister's PCI bus is receiving power.

System Status: Serial Numbers

This window lists the serial numbers of the system board, backplane,canisters, power supplies, and remote interface. To obtain currentinformation, click Refresh.

System Status: Revisions

This window displays server component revision information for thebackplane, system board, power supplies, I/O canisters or I/O groups,system interface and remote interface. To obtain current information,click Refresh.

While the above detailed description has shown, described, and pointedout the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied tovarious embodiments, it will be understood that various omissions andsubstitutions and changes in the form and details of the systemillustrated may be made by those skilled in the art, without departingfrom the intent of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for powering on a computer having aplurality of microcontrollers, the system comprising:a first computerincluding at least one power supply; a maintenance microcontroller,coupled to the at least one power supply and configured to provide apower on signal to the at least one power supply for the first computer;a microcontroller bus coupled to the maintenance microcontroller; and aremote interface microcontroller having an independent power supply,said remote interface microcontroller connected to the maintenancemicrocontroller via the microcontroller bus and configured to receive apower on command from a remote computer and to transmit said power oncommand to said maintenance microcontroller.
 2. The system defined inclaim 1, wherein the remote interface microcontroller includes anexternal port for connection to a second computer.
 3. The system definedin claim 2, wherein the remote interface microcontroller is responsiveto a command sent from the second computer to turn on the first computerpower supply.
 4. The system defined in claim 2, wherein the secondcomputer is at the same location as the first computer.
 5. The systemdefined in claim 2, wherein the second computer is at a location remoteto the first computer.
 6. The system defined in claim 5, additionallycomprising a pair of modems, wherein a first modem connects to theremote interface microcontroller and a second modem connects to thesecond computer.
 7. The system defined in claim 6, wherein each modemfurther connects to a public switched telephone network.
 8. The systemdefined in claim 6, wherein each modem further connects to a cablenetwork.
 9. The system defined in claim 6, wherein each modemfacilitates communication with a satellite.
 10. The system defined inclaim 1, wherein the independent power supply is a battery.
 11. A systemfor powering off a computer, the system comprising:a first computer; atleast one power supply coupled to the first computer; a firstmicrocontroller coupled to the at least one power supply and configuredto provide a power off signal to the at least one power supply for thefirst computer; a microcontroller bus coupled to the firstmicrocontroller; a remote interface circuit connected to the firstmicrocontroller via the microcontroller bus and having a secondmicrocontroller and an independent power supply coupled to the secondmicrocontroller; and a second computer connected to the first computervia the remote interface circuit and configured to communicate a poweroff command to the first microcontroller.
 12. The system defined inclaim 11, wherein the remote interface circuit includes an external portfor connection to the second computer.
 13. The system defined in claim11, wherein the remote interface circuit is responsive to a command sentfrom the second computer to turn off the first computer power supply.14. The system defined in claim 11, wherein the second computer is atthe same location as the first computer.
 15. The system defined in claim11, wherein the second computer is at a location remote to the firstcomputer.
 16. The system defined in claim 15, additionally comprising apair of modems, wherein a first modem connects to the remote interfacecircuit and a second modem connects to the second computer.
 17. Thesystem defined in claim 16, wherein each modem further connects to apublic switched telephone network.
 18. The system defined in claim 16,wherein each modem further connects to a cable network.
 19. The systemdefined in claim 16, wherein each modem facilitates communication with asatellite.
 20. The system defined in claim 11, wherein the independentpower supply is a battery.
 21. A program storage device storinginstructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform themethod comprising:providing a command for remotely powering on orpowering off a first computer; sending the command from a secondcomputer to a remote interface microcontroller; transmitting the commandfrom the remote interface microcontroller to a maintenancemicrocontroller via a microcontroller bus; executing the command on themaintenance microcontroller in the first computer; sending a power on orpower off signal from the maintenance microcontroller to a power supplyfor the first computer thereby powering on or powering off the firstcomputer; and sending a response back to the second computer indicatingsuccess or failure of the command.
 22. The device of claim 21, furtherincluding the act of displaying the success or failure of the command toa user.
 23. The device of claim 21, wherein the act of sending thecommand includes the act of transmitting the command through a pair ofmodems.
 24. A system for powering on or powering off a computer, thesystem comprising:a first computer; at least one power supply coupled tothe first computer; a first microcontroller capable of providing asignal to the at least one power supply; a microcontroller bus coupledto the first microcontroller; a remote interface microcontroller havingan independent power supply, connected to the first microcontroller viathe microcontroller bus; and a second computer connected to the firstmicrocontroller via the remote interface circuit and configured tocommunicate a command to the first microcontroller, wherein the firstmicrocontroller generates the signal to the at least one power supplybased on the command.